Irresistible ✓

31: Maverick & Sanders

❝ You know we could put em all to shame, now isn't the time to play safe, isn't this the reason why you came? So baby don't you let it go to waste ❞

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The atmosphere had a wild ring to it, as if it knew something was wrong. Our group of seven silently descended the stairs as we were told to, which would lead us to the main office area of Maverick & Sanders.

An hour was spent contemplating and  discussing as to how we could spin the dice in our favor. Lilah and Neil were super helpful, and we spent quality time with them going through the documents. And we'd been lucky. We had found a good amount of loopholes.

The loan document had clearly specified the time length of two years given to Susan Jamie Rutherford to return the money. Despite that, they'd barged into her house, threatened her, destroyed her property, filed in at her work place and most importantly, physically assaulted her son. Susan had been witty enough to make a note of every thing they did and click photographs of the after math.

She'd also clicked pictures of Ray's injuries and after a few coaxing, convinced her co worker at the bar to be a witness for her. Lilah and Neil had promised to run downtown to the bar and try to extract the CCTV footage.

"Stop." A booming voice brought us to our senses, as a large bulky man stepped in front of us, a scowl engraved on his face. "What do y'all want?" His voice was eerily familiar, and I tried to remember where I'd heard it before.

"We're here to meet Maverick. I'm Susan, and these are my son's friends. Let us in." Susan's voice was calm and steady, but we all knew she was nervous. The strength the woman possessed was admirable.

The man's eyebrows shot up and a sneer took over his lips as he looked us all over. "Rutherford, ain't it? Aw man, returned the money back yet or do we need to do it our way?" Simon's jaw visibly clenched at that and it took Olivia's warning hand on his arm to tone him down.

Susan fished out the bundle of dollars from her bag and we watched as the man's jaw fell slack. "Make way, if you and your boss want the money." Jason mocked, as the man gulped. His walkie talkie suddenly buzzed and he walked away from us, not before giving us a tentative glance.

"Money is really everything huh?" Katie mused as Jack silently rubbed his thumb over her back. A small smile crept up my face, happy for my best friend. It was high time she really got serious with a boy. More than that, I was happy it was Jack. I trusted him with her, he would make her happy.

A sense of loneliness settled over me. Olivia was muttering something in Simon's ear as he nodded seriously. Jack and Katie were smiling and assuring each other. Jason was softly whispering about something with Susan. And here I was, standing amongst so many people yet feeling so alone. There could've been a million people around me and yet I felt so fucking lonely.

Tears welled up my eyes, Susan's words still rotating, lurking in the depths of my mind. I wasn't still in terms with what had Ray experienced when he was young.

What is grief? Who knows. What is the correct way of dealing with grief? Who knows. Everyone has their own way. Everyone defines their own way of dealing with pain. I couldn't really blame Susan for grieving the way she did. It was understandable. But the way she did it was wrong. But I didn't feel the pain she did. I hadn't seen Ray for 12 hours and it was killing me not knowing where he was. Susan went 12 years without her soul mate knowing that he wouldn't come back, and she would have to live the rest of her life that way. How could she do that? How wonderfully strong she was to do that.